The Dawning Age of Lifeless Sterility

The liquid glass spray (technically termed “SiO2 ultra-thin layering”) consists of almost pure silicon dioxide (silica, the normal compound in glass) extracted from quartz sand. Water or ethanol is added, depending on the type of surface to be coated. There are no additives, and the nano-scale glass coating bonds to the surface because of the quantum forces involved. According to the manufacturers, liquid glass has a long-lasting antibacterial effect because microbes landing on the surface cannot divide or replicate easily.

Liquid glass was invented in Turkey and the patent is held by Nanopool, a family-owned German company. Research on the product was carried out at the Saarbrücken Institute for New Materials. Nanopool is already in negotiations in the UK with a number of companies and with the National Health Service, with a view to its widespread adoption.

We were all looking at applied nanotech back in the bbs days. Back then, ~7 years ago, because nanotech was in the planning and speculation phases, everything except simple, dumb-applications like carbon buckyball structures was impossible. At this point, we're getting into advanced dumb-apps with this glass spray. Next stage is probably basic smart apps like moving parts, articulating structures, little saws and windmills for as yet unconceived purposes. Later with advanced smart nanotech comes sensors, mobility, programmability and self-replication.

I would never call any progress in technology dumb. They are simply intermediary steps toward something that has practical application. I can see usage of this spray on silica in biotechnology in order to avoid contamination, filter organisms, and other means to prevent contamination and infection. However, to my knowledge, silica is a potential carcinogen (like many substances), so proper handling is required. I would not trust this compound in the hands of industry for mass production, due to the high likelihood that this would contaminate the environment, since it is in highly volatile form and the risk is in inhalation.

Whether this technology is more helpful than problematic is another issue. I see value in nanotechnology that simulates natural structures (biomimicry), and destruction in nanotechnology synthesized to serve man's purpose.

Something about nanotech not many might have concidered - nano pollution. A bunch of structures which nature has no idea of to take apart, some of them could last forever. Take silicone needles for example. They're one atom thik, and could puncture a cell like a hot knife would cut through butter. They could just float around in your body until you die of cancer when you're 25. There's a lot of irresponisible utalitarianism backing it up, we could end up with a whole new pollution problem on our hands.It's just more things to sell.

As it so happens, carbon buckyballs were also naturally occuring, not strictly a simple nanotech laboratory invention all along.

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"We found what are now the largest molecules known to exist in space," said astronomer Jan Cami of the University of Western Ontario, Canada, and the SETI Institute in Mountain View, Calif. "We are particularly excited because they have unique properties that make them important players for all sorts of physical and chemical processes going on in space." Cami has authored a paper about the discovery that appears online in the journal Science.

Buckyballs are made of 60 carbon atoms arranged in three-dimensional, spherical structures. Their alternating patterns of hexagons and pentagons match a typical black-and-white soccer ball. The research team also found the more elongated relative of buckyballs, known as C70, for the first time in space. These molecules consist of 70 carbon atoms and are shaped more like an oval rugby ball. Both types of molecules belong to a class known officially as buckminsterfullerenes, or fullerenes.

We were all looking at applied nanotech back in the bbs days. Back then, ~7 years ago, because nanotech was in the planning and speculation phases, everything except simple, dumb-applications like carbon buckyball structures was impossible. At this point, we're getting into advanced dumb-apps with this glass spray. Next stage is probably basic smart apps like moving parts, articulating structures, little saws and windmills for as yet unconceived purposes. Later with advanced smart nanotech comes sensors, mobility, programmability and self-replication.

Roboticists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have devised a range of self-assembling cube robots, which have no external moving parts.

Despite their lack of limbs, the M-Blocks can climb over and around each other, jump into the air, roll around and even move when hanging upside down - all thanks to an inner flywheel.

The flywheel can reach speeds of 20,000rpm and when the robot cube puts the brakes on, it gives itself angular momentum. Added to this are magnets on the edges and faces of the bots that allow them to attract to each other.